When Barack Obama met Genevieve Cook in 1983 at a Christmas party in New York’s East Village, it was the start of his most serious romance yet. But as the 22-year-old Columbia grad began to shape his future, he was also struggling with his identity: American or international? Black or white?

Sunday’s elections could make Nicolas Sarkozy the first one-term French president since the 1980s. In this 2008 profile, Maureen Orth reconstructs the sensational romantic roller-coaster ride that followed Sarkozy to the Élysée Palace, and the beginnings of France’s deep discontent with his leadership.